Printed circuit board (PCB) designs may be used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components in a variety of applications. For example, PCBs may be utilized in almost all electronic devices, such as computing devices. The PCB may electrically connect the electronic components utilizing transmission lines (also referred to as “traces”) that are formed (e.g., etched) on the PCB.
These electronic components of the electronic devices may require high-speed interfaces, and high-bandwidth (frequency) signals may be sent along the traces of the PCB between the electronic components. At these high frequencies, the insertion loss may be higher than at lower frequencies, making designing for such insertion loss important. In particular, insertion loss may be measured as the loss per inch (measured in dB) of a signal as it travels along the traces of the PCB. If the device is not properly designed to deal with the insertion loss, then the device may fail when operating. For example, the signal may become attenuated to the point it cannot be differentiated from noise on the trace.
In addition, the timing of when signals are sent and received between the electronic components on the PCB may also be important to the function of the device. For example, processing of signals may be based on a clock, such that if a signal is not properly aligned with the clock, the signal may be interpreted incorrectly. Accordingly, the propagation delay, i.e., the time it takes for the signal to travel along the traces, may need to meet certain requirements and/or the device may need to be designed according to strict propagation delays.
Therefore, precise analysis of PCB traces may be important to ensure that the electronic device operates within particular operating margins. In particular, estimating the insertion loss and propagation delay of traces on a PCB of a particular electronic device may be important for design optimization, channel budgeting, ensuring optimized equalization settings of the transmitter and receiver in multi-gigabit advanced modulation interfaces, etc.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.